Press Release: Sam Smith at blackShed Gallery

In his first solo exhibition, Sam Smith in collaboration with Project Art Works and blackShed Gallery, presents a unique new body of work that is part painting, part sculpture and part installation. Smith was presented with a cube-like structure of 27 interlocking canvas frames that he has worked on over many weeks as a single painting. The structure was then broken down allowing him to continue working on the 27 individual canvases and utilise the full range of his artistic mark-making, from squeezing and pouring to drawing. For Smith’s exhibition at blackShed, some of these works will reunite as sculptural pieces whilst others remain as single paintings.

Smith’s work was most recently seen in the acclaimed group show, In the Realm of Others, at De La Warr Pavilion, featuring the work of fourteen makers with profound intellectual impairment. His vast vibrant squeeze paintings capturing moments of intense visceral action are his signature work, made in swift and impulsive, yet considered moves. This pure physical interaction with materials has transformed Smith’s practice from a curiosity for emptying out domestic pastes and cleaning products into a meaningful creative process that reveals something of the mystery and dynamism of his personality.

Sam Smith is accompanied by Tessellate (1’30”), a video work made by Tim Corrigan, Lead Artist at Project Art Works and shows the artistic process behind Smith’s project for blackShed. It unfolds within a fixed frame like the static edge of a painting, and reveals Smith’s dynamic processes, questioning the relationship between art and intentionality, and the nature of the collaboration.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 60pp full colour catalogue priced £4.99.

Sam Smith was born in 1991 in East Sussex. He lives with his older brother, George and their mother, writer Charlotte Moore near Hastings. Selected exhibitions include In the Realm of Others, De La Warr Pavilion, (2015); My Dad Used to Fish on the Pier, Pier Hub, Hastings (2015); The Room and Everything in it, Dilston Grove, London (2015); One Year Later, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2013); and Boat, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2012).

blackShed Gallery is a contemporary art space that sits amongst converted farm buildings overlooking the hop fields of Robertsbridge in the East Sussex countryside. The Gallery delivers a diverse programme from a wide range of artists with each installation a collaborative process, and a way to test ideas and showcase new commissions. They have exhibitions by and represent artists including Alan Rankle, Andrew and Eden Kotting, Chris Milton, Craig Hudson, Dale Inglis, Jennifer Binnie, Kirtsen Reynolds, Martin Brockman, Nick Snelling, Oska Lappin, Rankle & Reynolds, Rob Sample, Rod Harman and Stuart Duff. www.theblackshedgallery.org.uk

Project Art Works is a visual arts organisation that conducts a wide range of projects with people who have complex needs and those that support them. Project Art Works initiates responsive, collaborative projects between artists, galleries and other cultural organisations, and children and adults who have severe neurological impairment, with their families and the services, professionals and processes that surround them. Their work utilises knowledge and sensitivity to the ethical issues arising from the inclusion of people who cannot knowingly consent to their involvement in art and culture.

Project Art Works was founded by visual artist Kate Adams, whose experience as the mother of a man with complex needs is central to the organisation’s responsive and informed approach. Adams is a Court of Protection appointed Deputy to her son in matters of Property and Affairs as well as Health and Personal Welfare (fewer than 1000 deputyships have been appointed in the UK since the 2008 Mental Capacity Act). She and her family run a personalised provision for her son employing seven support workers. Adams’ approach to the navigation of social care and advocacy is that knowledge is power and informed diplomacy the most effective means of achieving quality of life for people with complex needs and their families. In 2012 she was awarded an MBE for services to art and disability. She is the director of Project Art Works and maintains an artistic practice encompassing video, installation, construction and drawing. Project Art Works, Arch 3, Braybrooke Terrace, Hastings, Sussex TN34 1TD. Telephone 01424 423555 www.projectartworks.org